Speed Breeding  

Why in News?

Recently, scientists have been using speed breeding techniques to rapidly develop climate-resilient crop varieties amid climate change challenges.

• Speed Breeding – A set of techniques that manipulate environmental conditions to accelerate crop life cycle.
• Breeding Cycles – Normally, a crop plant completes only one generation in one year.
• With speed breeding, plants grow faster, so the same plant type can complete 4 to 5 full life cycles in one year.
  • E.g., rice flowering in around 60 days vs 130–140 days.
• Need – Conventional breeding takes 10 to 14 years, so new varieties may become outdated by the time they are released.
• This becomes a major bottleneck in crop improvement.
• Climate change is causing erratic rainfall, heat stress and new pests.
• Traditional Breeding Process – Breeders select desired traits, cross plants and select promising leads, followed by multi-season field trials for validation.
• This process makes crop development slow and resource-intensive.
• Mechanism – Manipulation of photoperiod, light intensity and spectrum, temperature, humidity, soil moisture and CO2 levels.
• Use of plant growth regulators and high-density planting to hasten flowering and seed maturity.
• Significance – Helps develop climate-resilient, high-yield and nutritious crop varieties faster and ensures food security under changing climate conditions.

Reference

Down to Earth | Speed Breeding